Chennai’s Vishnu Prasad and young Chirag Ghorpade stole the show on the opening day, winning in contrasting styles in the first round of the 22nd JK Tyre FMSCI National racing championship here on Saturday.
The revamped opening round saw 27 young guns line up for the first time to have a shot at the Novice Cup. And, Bengaluru’s Chirag (Momentum Motorsports) clinched the pole at the start of the day and went on to win the first race.
The 14-year-old timed 13:37.912s to beat the aggressive field by 0.338s, leaving his teammate Aaroh Ravindra and Mohamed Ryan (MSport) fighting for the other two places on the podium.
He exhibited speed and skill to wrest the second race as well.
However, all eyes were on the Formula LGB4 which had seven national champions in the fray. It was a three-way fight between Vishnu (MSport), Rohit Khanna (Dark Don Racing) and Ashwin (Dark Don Racing).
Ashwin shot into the lead, going past MSport’s Sohil Shah who began on pole at the first opportunity. He hung on to it all the way to the final lap but the safety car that had come out a couple of laps earlier hurt his flow as Vishnu and Rohit stepped up the heat to overtake him for the top two positions.
Syed Muzammil Ali was the other lad from Bengaluru who was unstoppable in the Gixxer Cup. He topped the practice rounds, grabbed the pole in the qualifiers and later finished on top in the race.
The results (provisional):
JK Tyre Novice Cup: Race 1: 1. Chirag Ghorpade (Momentum Motorsports); 2. Aaroh Ravindra (Momentum Motorsports); 3. Mohamed Ryan (MSport). Race 2: 1. Chirag; 2. Aaroh; 3. Parikshit Dardhalli (DTS Racing)
JK Tyre Suzuki Gixxer Cup: Race 1: 1. Syed Muzammil Ali; 2. Tanay Gaikwad; 3. Amul Angadi.
Formula LGB4: Race 1: 1. Vishnu Prasad (MSport); 2. Rohit Khanna (Dark Don Racing); 3. Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) .
